Best friends on the school bus

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• “I haven't got a tail — I'm not a dog”

  In brief: A parent tells Ajahn Brahm that their bullied son used a Thai teaching he'd brought back: if someone calls you a dog, look at your bottom…

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  They said their son was being bullied at school, bullying is a big thing. And they said a little teaching which really helped them, a very simple teaching, was that teaching which I took back from Thailand, which means that you don't listen to other people's criticisms. It was that teaching, if somebody calls you a dog, you look at your bottom to see if you've got a tail. If you haven't got a tail, you're not a dog, it is the end of the problem. And this actually happened because these bullies, they called this kid a dog, and he would remember the story, this was a kid at school, remember the story, he looked at his bottom, "sorry I haven't got a tail, I'm not a dog". And those kids stopped bullying him after that.

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• His grandfather said you're stupid

  In brief: A brilliant monk in the monastery did terribly at school because his beloved grandfather once looked at his results and said 'you're…

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  one day his grandfather took him aside saw his school results so far and said you're stupid and he loved his grandfather so much he believed it and he said from that moment on sort of he didn't do what at school at all everything else is brilliant if his grandfather hadn't said that he'd have been at University he's a very smart Monk

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• The donkey in the well

  In brief: A farmer tries to bury a donkey that fell into a dry well; with every shovelful of dirt, the donkey shakes it off and steps up on it,…

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  there was a donkey, just walking happily along in the forest, just munching and minding its own business. Because it wasn't mindful, he fell into a well, the well was dry so it didn't drown, and he didn't really injure himself, just a few bruises and scratches. When the donkey came to his senses he realized he was at the bottom of a well and there's no way up because donkeys can't climb. The only thing the donkey thought he could do was to cry for help to get someone's attention otherwise he would die down there of starvation. So he started crying for help. [makes donkey sound] I can't really do donkey noises, as I think now you have understood because probably I've got no previous incarnations as a donkey. [laughter] Ajahn: Those people who imitate animal noises, it must be that in your last life you were an animal. [laughter] As for me, I wasn't a donkey in my last life so [makes donkey sound] is the best I can do. " [makes donkey sound] ," said the donkey again and again. After a couple of hours actually somebody heard him. It was the local farmer. "What's making that noise?" He came over and saw it was coming from the well. He looked down, "my goodness, a donkey has fallen down that well." Now that farmer never liked that donkey. The donkey was always eating his farm produce and was being very stubborn. He'd never do what the farmer wanted. He also realized that well was a very dangerous thing. Somebody might fall in that well, a human. He thought of a wonderful idea. He could get rid of that dangerous well and the donkey at the same time. He got out a spade and started filling that well with earth. The cruel farmer. Now, if you do something like that it's called "bad karma." If you do any bad karma you're going to get unpleasant consequences, as you will see as this story develops. [laughter] So this donkey at the bottom of the well, thinking at first the farmer would help him, realized the farmer's trying to kill him by shoveling all this dirt over the donkey. When the donkey realized that, [makes donkey sound] even louder. [laughter] But that didn't stop the farmer. He just kept shoveling more dirt over this donkey, more and more dirt, trying to fill in the well and bury the donkey alive. After a while the donkey went quiet and never said anything. The farmer thought, "I've killed him." "I've buried him. Good riddance," and kept on shoveling. But the donkey hadn't died. The donkey, who must have also gone to Nollamara in the previous life... [laughter] Ajahn: ...had insight. He was a very smart donkey. Never underestimate donkeys. His insight was this. Instead of complaining when people throw dirt all over you, instead of complaining, just shake it off, tread it in, and he found he was growing a centimeter taller. The next shovel full of earth, shake it off, stamp it in, he's another centimeter higher. Every shovel of earth, he was getting closer and closer to the top of the well. Now the farmer, thinking the donkey had died already, paid no attention at all, shoveling, shoveling, when a pair of donkey ears appeared above the top of the well. Shovel, shovel, shovel. Shake it off, stamp it in, until a donkey head appeared at the top of the well. Before the farmer realized, the donkey was close enough to the surface it jumped out and bit the farmer on the backside. [laughter] Ajahn: Not because the donkey didn't like the farmer, but because he had to show the farmer the law of karma. [laughter] He was just an agent of cause and effect. He ran away. That's how the donkey escaped from the well.

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• Hands behind their backs

  In brief: In his one year as a schoolteacher in Devon, walking down a narrow lane at lunchtime, he meets two sixth-formers whose hands go behind…

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  for one year I was a school teacher. I remember just having a big conflict inside of myself. Should I sort of discipline those children in this school for doing things which I would have done only two or three years earlier? I remember these kids coming down, it was a nice day and I went for a walk down this lane in this uh summer time and lay off and then I saw it was lunchtime in the county of Devon. It was a beautiful day. I went down a lane and I saw a couple of the sixth formers when I was grade 12 or probably this uh the equivalent of the first year at university in Australia coming down the road. And as soon as they saw me, a teacher, their hands went behind their back. I know what that was was cuz that's what I used to do. That's when you're smoking and you're trying to hide a cigarette. A dead giveaway. And it was a narrow lane, they couldn't miss me and they couldn't turn around, so they were very, very embarrassed. And I I told them, "Look, that's not the way to hide a cigarette." But there's no way I would discipline those kids, even though it was against the school rules, because I felt being a hypocrite. I was rebelling against those rules. So why should I sort of impose those rules on others?

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